Charges dropped against teacher in 'garbage lunch' case

Published 9:59 pm, Monday, August 31, 2009

BRIDGEPORT -- The criminal case against a kindergarten teacher accused of forcing a 5-year-old student to eat food from a garbage can in her classroom was dismissed Tuesday.

Over the tearful objections of the boy's mother, Superior Court Judge Kari Dooley agreed to dismiss the charge of risk of injury to a minor against 67-year-old Anne O'Donnell after the prosecutor said he did not believe he could prove the case.

"This is just so hurtful," Latoya McLean complained after the short court hearing, brushing tears from her face. "What am I going to tell my son? I promised I would fight for him."

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McLean sat in the courtroom shaking her head as Assistant State's Attorney Donal Collimore told the judge he planned to nolle, or drop, the charges against O'Donnell, who leaned on a cane as she stood before the judge.

"We have no physical evidence and only hearsay testimony that this incident occurred," Collimore said. "We would have been unable to prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt." O'Donnell's lawyer, Robert Berke, then asked the judge to dismiss the case and the judge agreed.

However, the judge had barely finished issuing the ruling when McLean's lawyer, Josephine Miller, rushed into the courtroom. Out of breath, she waved a written statement at the judge and prosecutor.

"On behalf of the parents of this child I object to the state's attorney's decision to dismiss the charges," she said. "For inexplicable reasons the charges have been permitted to languish for almost five months. During this time the state's attorney has never once spoken to or otherwise communicated with the victim's mother regarding the underlying facts of the charge, nor inquired as to the well-being of the child."

Miller added, "It is apparent that the intent from the beginning was to permit enough time to elapse so that the public and media attention would dissipate and to quietly allow Ms. O'Donnell to walk away from these charges with impunity."

"It is not unusual for a case to get any number of court dates before it is resolved," Dooley said. "The court has granted the motion to dismiss, but that does not mean I condone the allegations. I don't want Mrs. McLean to feel the court does not take this situation seriously, because that is not the case."

O'Donnell, of Rockland Road in Fairfield, a kindergarten teacher at Park City Magnet School, was charged after the March 12 incident.

According to police, the boy said O'Donnell was angry with him because he ate only a portion of his lunch from the cafeteria and threw the remainder in the classroom garbage can.

The boy told police that O'Donnell retrieved a banana and several chicken nuggets from the garbage and told him to eat the discarded food. The teacher then peeled the banana and ordered the boy to eat it, which he did, police said.

Following Tuesday's hearing, McLean said she had packed a lunch for her son but he preferred to eat chicken nuggets from the cafeteria because she said they reminded him of McDonald's chicken nuggets. He had tossed his homemade lunch into the garbage, she said.

McLean said as a result of the incident her son now is afraid of going to school out of fear of seeing O'Donnell. She said he also has been regularly seeing a child psychologist.

"Requiring any child to eat food that has been retrieved from a trash receptacle containing items that likely contained bacteria or toxins is conduct that is likely to impair the health of that child," Miller said later. The city has been served notice that McLean plans to sue the Board of Education over the incident.

Berke said his client retired from her teaching position June 30. "My client is thankful the case has been resolved, and the state has chosen not to pursue the charges," he said.

McLean and O'Donnell brushed by each other, but avoided eye contact as they left the small courtroom.